Western Biz Rndtable

Henry and the Merchants of Doubt The merchants of doubt are the lobbyists, scientists and public relations flacks cashing in climate change denial, a well-oiled propaganda machine <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/01/exxon-mobil-climate-change-sceptics-funding" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">bankrolled by the oil and gas industry</a>. From 2006 to 2008, Henry was one of them, on the payroll of Policy Communications Inc. - a firm that, according to DeSmogBlog, played a sophisticated "<a href="http://desmogblog.com/policy-communications-inc-astroturf-shell-game" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">astroturf shell game</a>."The game worked like every other political shell game works: Various fronts were created to mask what was a propaganda campaign for the oil and gas industry. Here's an example:In 2007, the<a href="http://www.westernclimateinitiative.org/history" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"> Western Climate Initiative </a>(WCI) was created by the Governors of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, all of whom "signed an agreement directing their respective states to develop a regional target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (and) participate in a multi-state registry to track and manage greenhouse gas emissions in the region," according to the WCI website. The response to the WCI followed an often-repeated pattern. As <a href="http://desmogblog.com/western-climate-initiative-under-attack" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">DeSmogBlog noted </a>sardonically, "like ants to a picnic, you can bet some industry-funded front group is bound to show up whenever there is serious talk about reducing carbon emissions." And show up the ants did in droves, in the form of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Western_Business_Roundtable" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Western Business Roundtable </a>(WBR). Though dues-paying members are no longer posted on WBR's web site, a Way Back Machine search from January 2006 shows <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060105213254/http://www.westernroundtable.com/membership/memberlist.asp" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">dues-paying members </a>such as Arch Coal, Marathon Oil Corporation, Peabody Energy and Royal Dutch Shell. The listed address in an <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20081024075007/http://www.westernroundtable.com/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">October 2008 </a>Way Back Machine search, was the same address and phone number that is now DNC Convention Strategies Group and ROQ: 444 N. Capitol St., Suite 216, essentially next door to the national lobbying headquarters of the American Gas Association. The WBR, though, was merely a front group - actually, a front group of a front group - for another lobbying firm: <a href="http://desmogblog.com/policy-communications-inc-astroturf-shell-game" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Policy Communications Inc</a>., the original registrant of the WBR web site, upping the ante of the shell game to a whole new level. The doors for Policy Communications are <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?id=F24275&year=2012" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">still open</a>, according to Open Secrets. The money spent lobbying was much higher during Henry's time at Policy Communications than it is today, maxing out at a <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?id=F24275&year=2008" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">grand total of $360,000 </a>spent on it in 2008. Big money from the merchants of doubt is routinely accompanied by conspiracy theories. Policy Communications'/WBR's president and CEO, Jim Sims, for example, <a href="http://www.iceagenow.com/Climate_Science_Debate.htm" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">has stated of climate change, </a>"It is fashionable these days to say that the 'debate is over' on the science underlying climate change. But in the arena of science, a debate continues to rage on many aspects of this issue."Who is Sims? He "served in the White House in 2001 as President George W. Bush's director of communications for the National Energy Policy Development Group," which helped forge the administration's National Energy Policy, according a <a href="http://puc.sd.gov/energyconf/speakers/sims.aspx" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">biographical sketch</a>. It was this group, riddled with<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111501842_pf.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"> oil and gas corporate executives</a>, that crafted the "<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Halliburton_Company#The.22Halliburton_loophole.22_for_Methane_Gas_Drilling" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Halliburton Loophole</a>," which makes the chemical stew that's in fracking fluid for shale gas extraction a "trade secret" to average citizens, exempting the oil and gas industry from both the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act when they perform hydraulic fracturing for shale gas.Aside from being a lobbyist for an oil and gas industry front group, Henry is also a former Chairman of the National Energy Resources Organization (NERO), another group funded by the usual suspects: The American Petroleum Institute, ConocoPhillips, EnCana, Duke Energy (<a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/11285-the-people-behind-the-parties-and-the-democratic-party-at-the-dnc" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">major sponsor of the DNC</a>; its CEO Jim Rogers sits on the DNC Host Committee, and the company has lent a floor of its corporate headquarters to the Committee), General Electric and others. Importantly, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Dittus_Communications" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Dittus Communications </a>is also a <a href="http://nationalenergyresources.com/membersponsors.htm" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">corporate member of NERO</a>, which itself does public relations work for the shale gas industry's public relations machine, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Energy_in_Depth" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Energy in Depth</a>.